Urbanity: poems by VA Smith. Number 6 in Volume Six of our Editor’s Series.
[ cover artwork by Par Bilger ]
Publication: September 7, 2026 [100 copies]
25 pages
ISBN 978-1-960693-38-9
$ 12.00
VA Smith‘s work has appeared in several anthologies and in dozens of literary journals, among them: Southern Review, Calyx, Crab Creek Review, West Trade Review, Third Wednesday, and SWIMM. Her first two books, Biking Through the Stone Age and American Daughters, were published by Kelsay Books in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Green Writers Press published her third full-length collection, Adaptations, in 2025. Visit her website here.
The Night Patti Smith Sang to Me at the Philadelphia Met
Let’s face it—we are both beyond
Songs of Innocence:
32 years since she lost
Mapplethorpe to AIDS,
a quarter century
into her widowhood,
two years since my husband’s dive
into attempted suicide,
18 months before Lithium
would push his brain
to a sane center.
Still, here we are.
After work I don black
pleather to meet Patti wearing a wool beanie,
jeans and an acoustic.
From my balcony seat, I’m an aged-out Juliet
to Patti’s androgynous Romeo below.
She G-L-O-R-I-A’ s me
with love’s banquet. rides me back to Horses,
back to my hijacked coming of age.
She covers The Stones, Hendrix.
I want her to cover me.
At concert’s end, my husband smiles
at me across the aisle as I genuflect
the “I am not worthy” sign,
scream goddess! Philly girl! to the stage.
Patti gives it all back to us,
preaches people have the power,
then encores with “My Blakean Year.”
Outside, spring air damp with drizzle,
my man and I meet our Lyft:
together in fearful symmetry.
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